STITCH HELPS LURE OLYMPICS TO NYC

February 24, 2005

NEW YORK - Stitch Motion Graphics (www.stitch.net) recently teamed up with Kaleidoscope Productions to produce a non-broadcast presentation that was shown to the International Olympic Committee as part of the State of New York's effort to secure the host position for the 2012 games.

The presentation was driven by motion graphics and showcases the numerous championship-level sporting events that have taken place in New York City over the past five years. The goal was to make it clear to the members of the International Olympic Committee that New York is a city accustomed to hosting major sporting events and is ready to take on something as large-scale as the 2012 Olympic Games.

With a timeline of just two weeks, the Stitch team had to conceptualize, design and animate the project. Led by designer Anna Minkkinen, the team worked with basic branding elements used by NYC2012, along with stock footage of sporting events from Getty Images.

"The challenge was to create something with a consistent feeling, despite the fact that there was spotty visual coverage of all the events," notes Minkkinen. "We had great photos and footage from some events and none from others. The piece couldn't rely on the coverage, but rather on a graphic theme to tie it together."

As a part of its branding package, NYC2012 had created icons representing the Olympic sporting events. These were used as a central theme in the animation. Gary Forman, creative director with Kaleidoscope, expressed his feeling that the piece was really working not only to tell people about the events but to express an excitement about them.

Adobe After Effects and Photoshop was used to pull off the project. Jennifer Berman, Steve Hafner, and Joseph Krings assisted with the footage selecting. Berman handled the audio mix.

As a result of Kaleidoscope's satisfaction with the piece, they asked Stitch to design titles for another piece showing off New York's public transit system. They entrusted the studio to create graphics that were creative and consistent with NYC2012's branding. The titles were the glue of the piece that conveyed the message suggesting New York can move the Olympics with the use of its extensive transit system.

Anna Minkkinen handled title design and Cutting Vision's Gustavo Bernal performed the edit for the "Transportation" project.